Retro Reverb

AM & Shawn Lee Do Things the Old Fashioned Way, Then They Send It Across the Atlantic Digitally

I have been groovin’ lately to the most recent music by bi-coastal collaboraters AM & Shawn Lee, La Musique Numerique, which rolls off the tongue nicely to mean “digital music” in French. Testament, AM says, to the beauty of the French language, which makes anything sound romantic.

AM & Shawn Lee play Soho in Santa Barbara Thursday, Sept. 26; the Glass House in Pomona Friday, Sept. 27; The Independent in San Francisco Sat., Sept. 28; and the Abbott Kinney Festival Sunday, Sept. 29. They’re also hitting San Diego, Phoenix, Austin, Dallas, Tulsa and Denver.

AM and Shawn Lee met because of their shared influences, Italian and French soundtrack composers from the 1960s who were fairly prolific through the 1980s, particularly Giorgio Moroder. This led to a lot of researcher on my part about Moroder, who is fairly fascinating, as well as Library Music, something I had never even heard of before but had definitely heard it. I just didn’t know what it was called.

The results of the union are sexed-up scene-stealers, reminiscent of the disco-era soundtracks by their idol Moroder for movies like Foxes, Flashdance, Midnight Express and sultry hits written for Donna Summer. (Moroder’s profile is becoming more mainstream thanks to a recent spoken word cameo on Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories called “Giorgio by Moroder.”)

Because Lee lives in London, the two record independently and send a work-in-progress track back and forth digitally, one of the only modern digital age methods they employee. “I think it’s amazing because what it allows you to do is each person fully realizes their parts before they hand it off to the other person,” he says. Gone is the vulnerability of presenting an idea on the spot before it’s fully developed.

It usually works out that Lee sends an instrumental track to AM, AM writes all the lyrics and then Lee and his engineer Pierre Duplan handle the mixing. “But Shawn and I both play a bunch of instruments, and we’re not really ego driven on who does what. It’s more like who does it first. It’s a nice balance.” They use unmodified vintage equipment, the kind that is picked up cheap because most people view it as clutter. “We use them as they are,” AM says. “I actually get annoyed when people ‘circuit bend’ old keyboards. No need to modify what already sounds great and has tons of character.” Lee has been making instrumental music this way for more than a decade. Recording under the moniker Shawn Lee’s Pink Pong Orchestra, he’s put out tracks that become infamous for hip-hop sampling. And his song “Kiss the Sky” was recently handpicked by George Clooney for his new film The Monuments Men, out December 2013. The movie also stars Bill Murray and Matt Damon, two of my favorite leading men, so count me in. “We definitely embrace the convenience of digital recording,” AM says. “After all we are trading files between LA and London.” But we use vintage analog and early digital technology a great deal. We almost always tend to get the sounds we want with that equipment going in. We don't rely on the computer so much for getting our sounds. It's more there for the convenience of trading files and slight editing. Check out the video for "Replay":

And here's the music video for "Two Times":

For more info about the band, visit http://amandshawnlee.tumblr.com/, or check out the OC Weekly article here: http://www.ocweekly.com/2013-09-26/music/am-shawn-lee-la-musique-numerique/ Or just read below:

AM & Shawn Lee Transport You Back to the 20^th Century

By Arrissia Owen

OC Weekly

Sept. 26, 2013

If AM & Shawn Lee's newest release, La Musique Numerique, transports you to a time when kitschy 1960s, '70s and even early '80s movies with partying and humping as central themes ruled, then consider it mission accomplished.

Their latest offering is an ode to the libidinous hip-grinding music by Italian and French soundtrack composers such as Giorgio Moroder, Ennio Morricone, Stelvio Cipriani, Sauveur Mallia, Piero Umiliani and more­—godfathers to today's bands, including Air and Daft Punk.

The bones of any AM & Shawn Lee song are period drum machines and keyboards, the same vintage Moogs and consumer-model Casio and Yamaha rigs that ruled when digital technology was just starting to woo the music industry. The duo's synth-heavy disco and funkified electronic music is reminiscent of those film scores, not to mention gobs of library music by even more obscure composers.

Song sorcerers in their own right, AM and Shawn Lee were each successful solo musicians with parallel influences when their musical worlds collided. The resulting collaboration takes over the Glass House in Pomona on Friday, delivering hypnotic, slinky cosmo funk.

La Musique Numerique overflows with come-hither infatuation on songs such as "All the Love," "In the Aftermath" and "Replay," which are sure to plunge your mind right into the gutter. Even songs about breaking up, addiction and a depressing economy manage to sound racy.

AM & Shawn Lee record the way the composers they emulate would have while exploring the simplicity and sounds of the retro equipment, such as the Roland SDE 1000, an early-'80s digital delay unit. "The record [is] a very big tip of the hat to the early digital age of recording technology," AM says.

"The tone—people who know that equipment will hear it in the record, this early turn-of-the-digital-century sound, before digital got kind of cold and metallic-sounding," he continues. "Some musicians seem to be simplifying their set-ups, relying heavily on the computer, but analog and early digital technology had warmth and grittiness. You will definitely hear that all over our recordings."

AM fans from his early years shouldn't be surprised by the artist's interest in soundtracks. His songs have set scenes on TV shows including Grey's Anatomy, Keeping Up With the Kardashians, Big Love and various Real World seasons. Every track off his first album, 2005's Troubled Time, made it to the small screen; the album also helped to earn him LA Weekly's award for Best Singer/Songwriter.

While AM's early folk-rock garnered comparisons to Wilco, his third studio recording, 2010's Future Sons and Daughters, featured ethereal tunes pulled from disco, Brazilian Tropicália, psychedelic rock and '70s funk. This emerging sound garnered him invitations to tour with French luminaries Air and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Enter Shawn Lee, a Kansas-born ex-pat living in London. The award-winning video-game composer and multi-instrumentalist's work has been featured in movies, Oceans 13 and The Break-Up among them, as well as various snowboarding videos. Under the moniker Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, he has become one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop and is known for his innate ability to make everything from a kalimba and ektar to a charango sing.

The two became friends in 2008. They bonded over shared influences, and in 2010, AM sat in with Lee at an LA show. They started working on their first recording, Celestial Electric, and played their first show as a band at the 2011 South By Southwest music festival. "It makes sense that someone like me, being a freak about that kind of music, would reach out to him and create a bond," AM says, adding that Lee has been producing instrumental soundtrack-style music for more than a decade.

The transatlantic alliance works well, with Lee starting a song by sending a rhythm groove with drums and percussion to AM in the States. AM then writes a song based on the preliminary recording, adding guitar, bass, synth or whatever strikes his fancy. The track then makes its way back to Lee for a little glockenspiel or what-have-you, and finis.

Recording independently works well because both collaborators fully trust what the other brings to the table, AM says.

"I think funk music is inherently sexy," AM says about the description popping up in nearly every review of La Musique Numerique. "That's probably the best possible description that music can have."

Suedehead Can't Stop Succeeding

The first time I heard of Suedehead, it was from an editor asking me if I wanted to write about the band. I Googled them and this is what I saw, the video for the song "Can't Stop":

Without knowing anything else about the band, I said YES. I have now written three articles about Suedehead. I got to see them play live recently, and here is a video from that show at Alex's Bar on March 23:

Suedehead's Secret to Success

How a modern soul band from OC scored a tour with Social Distortion

Photo by Derek Bahn

OC Weekly

By Arrissia Owen

April 4, 2013

When the members of Suedehead considered covers to add to their repertoire of original, modern soul send-ups, they searched for a meticulous representation of their band through borrowed song. The OC outfit, which boasts former members of Beat Union, the Distraction, TSOL, Hepcat and theAggrolites, sought a perfect synthesis of the band's strong punk rock, DIY background with the weighty beats and fast tempo of traditional soul leanings.

"We were joking around and said, 'We're the Fugazi of soul,'" says guitarist Chris Bradley, whose role in the 2-year-old band also includes graphics, stage design and overall aesthetic. With that joke in mind, the B-side for the band's newest 7-inch "Lying In Bed" clicked.

With a thumbs up from Fugazi's Ian MacKaye, the band put the Suedehead stamp on the post-hardcore stalwarts' "Waiting Room," complete with horns, chord switch-ups, soulful singing and Hammond-style organ. They'll play that and more Saturday during a daytime show at Slidebar in Fullerton.

Their second cover choice is more straightforward, Spencer Davis Group's "Gimme Some Lovin' ." Taking on the 1960s B-3 foot-stomper is a nod to Davis and Suedehead co-founder Davey Warsop's shared hometown,Birmingham, England. "It's like if you put those two songs in a blender, it sort of sums up Suedehead, philosophically and musically," Bradley says. "It's everything we're about."

Scooters at Northern Soul night

By day, Warsop works as a recording engineer for local surf-apparel giant Hurley, which mixes music into the lifestyle brand equation. It was there that Warsop met Bradley, who was then senior environmental designer for the brand, but now works at Skullcandy.

The friends started creating music together reminiscent of Get Happy-era Elvis Costellomixed with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. While recording some demos for Social Distortion at Hurley, Warsop shared rough versions of the songs he, Bradley and drummer Korey "Kingston" Horn were working on.

Suedehead at Alex's Bar March 23, 2013

Social D frontman Mike Ness breezily suggested that when Warsop's new band finalized its lineup they should book shows together. Warsop took this as polite banter and refrained from packing his bags. A couple of months later, Warsop got the call to join Social D on tour despite the lack of an actual band.

Warsop and Bradley scrambled. Within days they named the project, created their International Soul Rebel Society label, brought in Greg Kuehnon keys and Nic Rodriguez on bass (eventually replaced by Mike Bisch), and added a horn section. Before the tour, they rehearsed four times, played a show and mentally prepared to perform in front of thousands.

Social D fans, not particularly known for patience during opening acts, were the most intimidating aspect. "We were prepared to be spit on," Warsop says with a humble laugh. Instead, Suedehead posed for pictures and signed autographs after shows. Riding in the van after the second gig, the guys talked future plans. "We all had the magic in our eyes," Bradley says about their onstage chemistry.

They decided that, yes, they were going to continue on and maintain control of the band's business to keep it fun, even if that meant staying up with bloodshot eyes stuffing boxes for mail orders, which they do. Saying yes to taking risks is sort of their thing.

"We're more into talking ourselves into things than out of them," Bradley says. Within months they were touring with Flogging Molly, playing Coachella and enjoying airtime on KROQ. In March, Suedehead took home the OC Music Award for Best Pop Band.

Photo also by Derek Bahn

"Things happen for a reason," Warsop says about the band's serendipitous yet short history together. "We are a little bit older, more mature, more focused. As long as you are working hard, saying yes and giving 100 percent, everything else unfolds."

For now, the guys from Suedehead enjoy every second of their topward trajectory.

"We never want to look at it like, 'This sucks right now, but we can't wait until we're here,'" Bradley says, raising his hand high in the air as a symbol of perceived success, before lowering it back down to eye level to make his point. "No, this fucking rules right now."

Here is a link to the story in OC Weekly, where it originally ran: 

http://www.ocweekly.com/2013-04-04/music/suedehead-s-secret-to-success/

And here is another story I wrote about the band: 

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/04/suedehead_slidebar.php

And another from last year: 

http://ieweekly.com/2012/08/music-2/music/kismet-connections/

And here's another video:

Seriously. I love this band. They're great. 

Sham Rock

From Darkness Into Light

Flogging Molly on Politics, their Amazing Success and their Green 17 Tour

By Arrissia Owen

IE Weekly

March 7, 2013

Detroit got under Dave King’s skin. The Flogging Molly frontman’s adopted hometown looked like a natural disaster roared through its forsaken streets, yet FEMA was nowhere to be found. The devastation was not at the hands of Mother Nature. It was pure human calamity fueled by Hurricane Banks Too Big To Fail.

As Flogging Molly songs started to pour out of King—verses privy to the woes of the working class—Detroit, the foreclosure crisis and the downtrodden 99 percent pushed their way into the lyrical content. The result was the band’s fifth studio album, 2011’s Speed of Darkness.

The perpetually touring band stops by the Fox Theater in Pomona on Friday, March 8, as part of its annual Green 17 tour leading up to St. Patrick’s Day. Flogging Molly will play songs from Speed of Darkness, as well as material from its 16 years as Ireland ambassadors.

“It wasn’t the album we set out to write,” King said about Speed of Darkness. “It became the album we had to write.” It’s less a collection of love songs to his adopted hometown and more a commiseration session turned pep talk over a pint.

Known for their traditional Irish music with punk rock attitude backed by melodic multi-instrumentalism, the seven-piece band is no stranger to tackling social issues and politics, most often the Irish variety. But this time, Detroit served as the backdrop, an inspiration ever present as the band holed up in King and his wife Bridget Regan’s basement to bang out their next album.

Hard to Label

If you're over 40, you understand.

King originally came to America while fronting a British band with former Motörhead guitarist “Fast” Eddie Clarke called Fastway, touring with acts like AC/DC. That was followed by a stint with Katmandu, a hard rock band with Mandy Meyer of Krokus. He landed in Los Angeles after ditching New York and his label deal with Epic Records to go in a different direction than the heavy metal they anticipated.

For his next project, King envisioned incorporating rock and classic Celtic instruments like the bodhrán drum, fiddle, tin whistle, mandolin and accordion in homage to his Irish roots. Having grown up on a steady mix of The Dubliners and Johnny Cash, followed by a ’70s glam rock phase, his vision was more eclectic, moving beyond metal.

When King relocated to LA, he met Regan, who played fiddle, and they put together what would morph into Flogging Molly. They began gigging Mondays at a local Irish pub, Molly Malone’s. While beating the place to death as its house band, the name came from their famed tenure, with a snicker. It stuck.

By then, the lineup was solidified with all band members proficient on multiple instruments. The roster includes guitarist Dennis Casey, bassist Nathen Maxwell, banjo and mandolin player Bob Schmidt, drummer George Schwindt and accordion player Matt Hensley.

Matt Hensley

Hensley is famous in his own right for his years as a professional skateboarder pre-squeezebox in the late 1980s and early ’90s. He left the competitive side of the sport and turned to music as a refuge. Drawn to pawn shop accordions, he threw himself into lessons and thanks to a chance meeting with King at Molly Malone’s secured a spot in the band.

Hensley’s fellow band members had no clue their accordion player could throw down a mean 180 no comply on pavement or a caballerial over a picnic table. But it unwittingly boosted the band’s popularity in skate circles. At one of their first shows away from LA in San Jose, the place was filled to the brim with skaters, making for a rowdy bunch.

With Casey’s punk-inclined playing and some blues progressions, the band took on a grinding, amped up sound reminiscent of The Pogues and The Waterboys spliced with The Clash and Lemmy. They cultivated their own brand of what the BBC called “sham rock.”

Dennis Casey

From Flogging Molly’s first independent release, the 1997 live album recorded at Molly Malone’s Alive Behind the Green Door, the band’s following grew steadily. They signed with indy label SideOneDummy Records and by 2000 were on The Warped Tour as they promoted their label debut Swagger. Tours followed supporting Mighty, Mighty Bosstones and Bouncing Souls. Their fan base exploded.

“We got so much exposure from those three tours that we moved right into headlining tours,” Schmidt says. Two years later, Flogging Molly released Drunken Lullabies. By then the band’s following comprised a demographic across the board drawn to King’s personal songwriting worthy of a raised Guinness.

Flogging Molly’s 2006 acoustic/live DVD-CD combo pack Whiskey on a Sunday went platinum, and critics gobbled up the 2008 release Float, lauded for its political subject matter and anti-capitalist sentiment. The band does not take its unlikely, uncompromising success lightly.

“It’s one thing to have a connection with people in pubs,” Schmidt says. “If we can get them in front of us we can convert ’em. But to sell that many records—you know it’s such a different world.” Because the fan base relied so heavily on word of mouth and record execs didn’t know how to market them, when the packed shows translated into record sales—in the millions—the band was delighted.

Political Certainty

Flogging Molly has become increasingly political during the band’s years together, outspoken on issues from OxFam to the Pussy Riot imprisonment to their recent involvement with Amnesty International. The band reprised Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’” for the cause, contributing the track to the organization’s compilation CD Chimes of Freedom.

Bob Schmidt, left.

“Over the last eight to 12 years of American foreign policy, anyone with a functioning brain is calling into question what being an American means,” Schmidt says about the group’s political leanings. “As you travel the world, and your mind expands beyond the boundaries of where you grew up or where you’ve always lived, your involvement becomes more tantamount and you become more aware of it.”

Flogging Molly is more a social band than a political one, Schmidt says. “We don’t pretend to know much about politics in the true sense of the word,” he says, “but what we do experience from talking to people around the world is what the social effects of political decision are. That is where our real strength as political commentators lies.” They are compelled to ask the hard questions, even if through song.

“We all share the view of wanting to take what we do and help the less fortunate in some way,” Casey says. Each of the members supports these causes individually, and as a whole band.

Casey’s own interest in Amnesty International, the non-governmental human rights organization, was piqued as a young man by Peter Gabriel’s support of the nonprofit. “If we can open at least one person’s eyes, for me that would be something that I am glad we participated in,” he says.

When they were asked to cover a Dylan song for the CD, “The Times They are a-Changin’” seemed the obvious choice because it spoke to what their own album, Speed of Darkness, tackled. Change. “It was like we could have put it on the record,” Casey says.

Fast Company

The America Flogging Molly wrote about for Float no longer existed once the lyrics started to take shape for the band’s next album.

Bridget Regan, left, and Dave King

King and Regan, who married in Japan while on tour for Float, also have a home in Ireland, King’s native country. While the band’s sound borrows heavily from King’s Dubliner upbringing, it was Regan’s Motor City hometown where the couple also lives that dominated the recording of Speed of Darkness.

The global financial crisis escalated so quickly that regular Americans could hardly grasp what a subprime loan was before having to tackle the semantics of credit defaults, bank recapitalizations and stress tests. Detroit was hit hard, and King became a narrator for the proletariat.

“They were living there, and as the economy was falling apart Detroit was one of the worst hit,” Casey says. “Neighbors thrown out of houses, factories shutting down, stores closing down—it was like a domino effect. He was very moved by that.” Then while visiting Ireland, King saw the trickledown effect of America’s horrible economy worldwide. “He just couldn’t get away from it,” Casey says.

Songs like “The Power is Out” are a collective nod to blue collar folks who may not grasp the impact of deregulation but understand that the rich are nowhere near as screwed as the people struggling to keep the lights on. “It’s par for the course / Unless you’re a bloodsucking leech CEO,” King sings.

“Don’t Shut ‘Em Down” details the economic downturn, drawing parallels between Detroit and Dublin’s bleak outlooks with factories closing and populations dwindling. “The Present State of Grace” urges its audience to rise above the bull, find inner peace and persevere.

Darkness Descends

The title of Speed of Darkness comes from Miljenko Jergovic’s collection of short stories called Sarajevo Marlboro. The artist who did the cover art for the recording, Dino Misetic, was quoted in the book as a child. The book is a fictionalized retelling of how the Bosnian War of the early 1990s after the breakup of Yugoslavia disrupted lives.

The stories show the horrors of war, but the Croatian author also highlights how things became ghastly so quickly. The stories in the anthology illustrate the resiliency of humanity, even when under siege. Sound familiar?

Misetic is quoted in the book as an 11-year-old schoolboy, temporarily displaced in Zagreb from Zenica because of the unrest. “I know what the speed of light is, “ he said. “But we haven’t learned about the speed of darkness yet.”

“It was such a profound thing to say, sort of a from the mouths of babes thing,” Schmidt says. The situation escalated quickly, displacing the city’s Muslims, Croats and Serbs. The quote’s power stuck with King.

“Economically and politically, we’ve seen kind of the same thing happen in America, not to the same bloody extent, but certainly we saw how quickly things can change from a bright, cheery economy to a really dire, morose economy,” Schmidt says. “It seemed like a really appropriate quote for that switch. But the upside is that it can turn around just as quickly.”

“Rise Up” closes the album’s songs about life’s ups and downs with a call for resiliency. “Stand and be counted,” King sings, championing defiant hope in search of the fizzling American Dream. “Dig out the cancer / dig out the cancer of futility.”

Don’t Chute the Messenger

Speed of Darkness’ lofty message hasn’t been an easy sell. “This album has proven difficult for us (because) people are uncomfortable by some of the subject matter that we are talking about and that is fine, that’s why we brought it up,” Schmidt says. The mass media representation of a country on the upswing doesn’t match up with the picture they encounter on tour.

“We felt like it was our responsibility to tell the stories of some of the people we are seeing out there,” Schmidt says. “They are being told the hard times are over, but yet they’re losing their houses and their lives are collapsing and their jobs are gone and they feel like they don’t have a voice. We were able to be a voice for them.”

Still, the band members don’t want to come off preachy. “We’re not trying to tell anyone what to think, just that they need to think,” Schmidt says. Or they may sink like a stone. For the times, they are a-changin’.

Flogging Molly  w/ The Drowning Men at the Fox Theater, 301 S. Garey Ave., Pomona, (877) 283-6976; www.foxpomona.com, www.floggingmolly.com. Fri, Mar 8, 7PM. $35-$45. All ages.

Camera phone: March 8, 2013, at Fox

Link to the original post in IE Weekly: http://ieweekly.com/2013/03/feature-stories/from-darkness-into-light/

Skaters Turned Troubadours

Top 10 Skateboarders Who Became Musicians

Duane Peters, punk as, well, you know. 

OC Weekly

By Arrissia Owen 

Thursday, February 28, 2013 

Skateboarding and music mingle nicely, from the soundtracks of skate videos to the shredders themselves hitting notes. For some skaters, it's hard to say what comes first, the music or the maple. It's not uncommon while learning about a band to find that a member or two has skateboarding in their past, so we thought we'd take a stab at a Top 10 of sorts. That's not to say there aren't gazillions of skater savants who are melodically inclined. But here's a rundown of our faves.

Ethan Fowler, observing the Sabbath.

10. Ethan Fowler

Bands he's been in: Green and Wood

Longhaired, bearded wild card Ethan Fowler wowed the kids back in post-Toy Machine, Big Brother days as one of the elite in videos such as Stereo Skateboards' Tincan Folklore (with My Name Is Earl's Jason Lee) and more. He and Stereo owner Chris Pastras did the music for the video as the Bucket Brothers, to boot.

More recently, the 35-year-old fronted LA stoner-doom rock band Green and Wood. The group have been around since 2007 and played South By Southwest in 2010. He sings, plays guitar and drums on the band's self-titled album. He's not a real chatterbox, and he's not big on the social media that is hip with the kids these days, so it's hard to know what the hell is up with him.

I't's the General Fucking Principle of the thing for  Tony Alva.

9. Tony Alva

Bands he's been in: The Skoundrelz, G.F.P.

Tony Alva, one of the original Z-Boys skaters, was the first to form his own skate company, Alva Skates, back in 1977. His aggressive style took the industry by storm, putting Dogtown on the map.

In addition to his skating talents, Alva also rips on bass. In the 1980s, he was a member of the Skoundrelz with Mike Dunnigan and Mike Ball (Suicidal Tendencies) and Dave Hurricane (Wasted Youth). 

Currently, he plays in the hardcore punk band G.F.P., a.k.a. General Fucking Principle, which also includes vocalist Tom Paul Davis (DFL), whose friends call him Crazy Tom for a reason; guitarist Greg Hetson (Circle Jerks, Bad Religion); and drummer Amery Smith (Suicidal Tendencies). They are working on new material with Mario Caldato Jr. of Beastie Boys fame.

Steve Caballero, left, with The Faction in Orinda, Calif., 1982.

8.Steve Caballero

Bands he's been in: The Faction, Odd Man Out, Shovelhead, Soda

"Skate and Destroy" became a bit of a skateboarding mantra in the mid-1980s, thanks to the Faction, a skate-punk band featuring Steve Caballero on guitar from 1982 to 1985. The song with that title was prominent in Powell Peralta's Bones Brigade Video Show, prompting the phrase to be lovingly placed on many a skate deck at the time. The band was composed of all skaters, including singer Gavin O'Brien, guitarist Jeff Kendall, drummer Craig Bosch and others rotating in and out. They played their first gig opening for Social Distortion in San Jose.

Caballero, who was named Skater of the Century by Thrasher in 1999, went on to be in alt-rock band Odd Man Out (1987-89) and rock band Shovelhead (1991-94) and played pop-punk with Soda (1995-96). Session Records released a compilation CD with his various bands called Bandology Vol. 1.

Ray Barbee, center, seeing double with the Mattson 2.

7. Ray Barbee

Bands he's been in: Solo artist, BLKTOP Project

From San Jose hails Ray Barbee, who is best known in the skating world for his no-comply variations and stellar parts in Powell Peralta videos such as Public Domain and Ban This. The current Long Beach resident has a signature shoe with Vans and bragging rights as one of the first African-Americans pro skaters.

And while his skating is stylish, it was his 2003 debut EP on Galaxia Records, Triumphant Procession, that caught the ears of guitar lovers with his jazz-influenced surf-rock instrumental tracks. That led to 2005's In Full View. In March 2007, he recorded in Japan with the Mattson 2 and released Ray Barbee Meets the Mattson 2. Their music has been featured on NPR, a number of surf videos, as well as a Ford commercial. Barbee gets extra skate points for his collaboration with Tommy Guerrero for BLKTOP Project, which also included fellow skater Matt Rodriguez, who is in the band Sacramento Storytellers.

Mike Vallely, left, with Greg Ginn. It's all good. 

6. Mike Vallely

Bands he's been in: Black Flag, Good for You

Mike Vallely is many things: skateboarder, actor, stuntman, minor-league hockey player, professional wrestler, punk-rock musician. Vallely was famously discovered by Neil Blender from atop a ramp at a spring 1986 vert contest in Virginia. Blender, along with Lance Mountain, watched Vallely skating in a car park next door. That impromptu intro led to an amateur deal with Powell-Peralta. By August, he was on the cover of Thrasher. The next year, his mug was in Search for Animal Chin. Most recently, he started Elephant Brand Skateboards.

Vallely's long, storied skating career ran parallel with his musical interests. He first joined Resistance in 1985, but he only played one live show, opening for 7 Seconds, before exiting to focus on skating. He fronted his own band, Mike V and the Rats, in the early 2000s, followed by Revolution Mother in the late 2000s.

In 2003, he joined Greg Ginn to sing for Black Flag at a reunion show in LA. Nearly a decade later, the two joined forces to form Good for You, which saw its debut album on SST, Life Is Too Short to Not Hold a Grudge, hit the streets Feb. 26. Good for them.

Matt Costa, not so pitiful after putting his skate career behind him.

5. Matt Costa

Bands he's played in: Solo artist, Reverend Baron

If you've read any articles about Matt Costa, even ones here in OC Weekly, you're probably already aware of his past as a kick-flippin' crooner. However, early in his pro skating career, a bad landing off a 10-stair ledge abruptly cut his skating career short, shattering his leg. He was 19. The bright side was that the Huntington Beach resident picked up his guitar during the 18 months he was laid up and started putting together some low-fi tunes. No Doubt guitarist Tom Dumont heard his demo and offered to record his first album. 

Soon after, Costa signed to Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records and released Songs We Sing (2006). Since then, he has played Coachella twice, filmed music vids with Emmett Malloy, and had songs placed in movies such as I Love You, Man. Most recently, he teamed up with producer Tony Doogan (Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai) for a self-titled release, which came out Feb. 12. Pro skater Danny Garcia plays on the release, and Costa returns the favor for Garcia's band, Reverend Baron. 

Salba, second from right, with Powerflex 5. Corey Miller is second from left.

4. Steve Alba

Bands he's played in: The Wild Ones, the Flame Throwers, Screaming Lord Salba and His Heavy Friends, Slaves of Rhythm, Dirty Bastards, Powerflex 5

Badlander Steve Alba, a.k.a. Salba, owned Upland's L-Pool and Combi Pool, as well as Baldy Pipe, back in '70s and the early '80s, giving the Dogtown boys a run for their money. As part of the Santa Cruz team, the now-50-year-old father of two terrorized the coping, sniffing out secret spots and documenting his exploits in Thrasher, Heckler and more. He's still at it.

Growing up, Salba's best friend was George Bellanger, a fellow skater. Their first band was the Wild Ones and featured another skater, James McGarrety; he and Bellanger left to start Goth-rock band Christian Death. Salba met up with Kurt Ross, then in Kent State, a.k.a. Red Brigade. Ross started to play with the band as they shared stages with Agent Orange, 45 Grave and others. 

That band slowly transitioned into the Flamethrowers, which played with T.S.O.L., Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Replacements and more. As the band started to lean more toward glam rock, Salba returned to his first love: skating. He now plays in Powerflex 5 with tattoo artist Corey Miller of L.A. Ink fame.

Tommy Guerrero with Free Beer, circa 1984. Photo by Murray Bowles.

3) Tommy Guerrero
Bands he's played in: Free Beer, solo artist

The 46-year-old co-founded Real Skateboards, and his improvisational style transformed asphalt for many a skater to follow. Most recently, he has been collaborating with Indy Trucks. The ad for the signature trucks features Guerrero skating with a walker, natch. At the 15th annual TransWorld SKATEboarding Awards on Feb. 27, he received the Legend Award.

Guerrero started out in the skate-punk band Free Beer in 1981 with his brother Tony. The band broke up in 1983, but not before playing shows with Social Distortion, Bad Brains, the Adolescents, Minor Threat and others. Guerrero moved on to the experimental group Jet Black Crayon with Monte Vallier (of Swell) and Gadget on turntables. 

But Guerrero achieved his biggest success as a solo artist with mostly instrumental soundscapes, starting with Loose Grooves and Bastard Blues, recorded in 1995 for a skate video he filmed. The compositions were filled out with guest vocals by Lyrics Born and Gresham Taylor. Guerrero released Lifeboats and Follies in 2011 on Galaxia.

Matt Hensley squeezing all he can out of life post-skateboarding. 

2. Matt Hensley
Bands he's played in: Flogging Molly, Spy Kids

San Diego's Matt Hensley found his way to the accordion and Irish punk band Flogging Molly by way of a skate deck. The squeezeboxer fell in love with the band Operation Ivy in an H-Street Skateboards video, the same company he went on to skate for in vids such as Shackle Me Not. 

Around that time, he played in a female-fronted ska band in the early '90s, Spy Kids, along with members who went on to play in Unwritten Law and Buck-O-Nine. But he hadn't yet picked up an accordion. He'd fallen in love with it while on tour with a band. Hensley met Flogging Molly lead singer Dave King by chance at LA bar Molly Malone's, just as King was putting the band together.

"I believe I have been really lucky; my life has been skateboarding and playing music," Hensley told Ride Channel in an interview. "If I can continue to do these two things and somehow put a shirt on my son's back while I am doing it, I am a lucky. Man. I would not be playing accordion in this crazy band if it weren't for skateboarding—I know that to be the truth. Skateboarding has given me everything."

This is a stick-up with Duane Peters Gunfight. 

1. Duane Peters
Bands he's played in: U.S. Bombs, Political Crap, the Mess, Exploding Fuckdolls, Duane Peters and the Great Unwashed, Duane Peters and the Hunns, Duane Peters Gunfight

The Master of Disaster is a punk-rock and pool-skating legend, credited for inventing the Acid Drop, the Indy Air and his signature move, the Fakie Hang-up, a.k.a. the Disaster. Peters, aside from being unbelievably candid about everything from copulating with blow-up dolls to doing time to shooting up in his neck, is punk as fuck. He received TransWorld SKATEboarding's Legend award back in 2003. There's even a movie, released by Black Label Skateboards, titled Who Cares: The Duane Peters Story, if you'd like to go up close and personal.

Here is what I originally wrote about Duane Peters. It got edited down for space. But this is my blog, and I want to publish it in its entirety:

The Master of Disaster is a punk rock and pool skating legend, credited for inventing the Acid Drop, the Indy Air and his signature move the Fakie Hang-up, a.k.a. The Disaster. Peters, aside from being unbelievably candid about everything from copulating with blow up dolls to doing time to shooting up in his neck, is punk as fuck. He received TransWorld SKATEboarding’s Legend award back in 2003. There’s even a movie, released by Black Label Skateboards, called Who Cares: The Duane Peters Story if you’d like to up close and personal.

Peters is said to have ushered in skateboarding’s love affair with punk rock dating back to the 1970s. He’s known for his time in bands U.S. Bombs, Political Crap, The Mess, Exploding Fuckdolls, Duane Peters and the Great Unwashed, and most recently Duane Peters and the Hunns, which changed its name to Die Hunns but broke up. They reunited in 2012 at the Orange County Punk Rock Picnic under the band’s original name.

The Master also took part in An Evening with Charles Bukowski in Germany, an interactive stage play narrated by Peters. Fender issued the limited edition Duane Peters Sonoran SCE “61” model with red and black stripes and a skull reminiscent of his Pocket Pistols deck.

Back in 1989, he told Thrasher magazine: “I’ll always be in a band, guaranteed. I dig music and I hate too many musicians not to be in a band.” The tattooed, toothless wonder has proven darn near indestructible.

Last we heard he was playing with Duane Peters Gunfight. After being hit by a car in November 2012, he postponed a show with the band at Slide Bar in Fullerton. But that scamp was up and playing again within a month despite a ruptured lung, bruised kidney, sprained left wrist and a smashed foot. He’s the epitome of hardcore. 

Here's the original link to the story in OC Weekly:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/02/top_10_skateboarders_that_became_musicians.php

Ticket to Whoville

Scott Devours and Zak Starkey

Sometimes Facebook comes in handy. A friend of mine from years ago, Scott Devours, has gone on to become quite the drummer, globetrotting as Roger Daltrey's sticks man for the last couple of years. So when he recently got a call to fill in for the Who's drummer Zak Starkey on the band's current Quadrophenia tour, pretty much everyone who knows him lost their minds. It was like a collective high-five throughout the social networking circles. I was honored to tell his story. 

Here's a part of it that I couldn't squeeze into the article, which ran in OC Weekly. That story follows this little blurb. 

When Scott first moved to Los Angeles he was living the dream, sleeping in his car in Santa Monica for the first couple of weeks. This is especially funny because right now word is he lives in an old bus. Apparently, it's an awesome bus with flat screen TVs, but that is still ironic. He is on tour so much that it doesn't make much sense to put down roots. He has come full circle.

Anyway, from Santa Monica Scott moved to Hollywood. "I was thinking Hollywood would be a nice place," Scott says with a laugh. That didn't turn out as glamorously as he hoped it would. He was about to pack up again and accept defeat. But then he saw a flier for a Long Beach band called Speaker. 

"I loved the way their ad sounded," Scott says. "I could tell the kind of guys they were from the way they worded the ad. It was very blunt. I could tell they had disdain for all the things about LA that I did, too."

Things went well, but Scott still didn’t feel like he could make things work on the West Coast and he was still considering giving up. He walked into Fern’s, a legendary LBC punk rock watering hole on Fourth Street, and met the first decent, optimistic person he’d come into contact with in Southern California, bartender Jackie Hayden. His entire destiny turned around.

"I didn't have anywhere to go, no friends, no money," Scott recalls. "I didn't know whether this band was going to pan out. I didn't think I could live in Hollywood much longer." He had money for one beer. 

"I was totally considering hopping back in my car and driving back to Maryland because I was so downtrodden and had no hope even though the audition went so well," Scott says. "I know now that I was looking for a sign." Jackie was that sign. "As soon as I left there, I remember thinking I would give Long Beach a chance."

The guys in Speaker saw the "squalor" that Scott was living in and offered him a place to sleep on the floor, which everyone conceded was better than his situation in Hollywood. During his years in Long Beach, he gigged with nearly every musician in the vicinity, known for being able to jump in and raise not only the bar, but the intensity of the performance from behind his kit.

"All that comes from believing that when you are performing you give it everything,” Scott says. “I know that sounds stereotypical and generic, but my favorite performers my whole life when I see ’em play—and the Who are the absolute pinnacle of that description to me, it doesn’t get any higher or more respectful than that—when I saw my heroes play, it felt like they were giving it everything.” 

Thanks to Jackie, Scott gave the Who everything, too.

Here is the original story as printed in the OC Weekly:

How Local Drummer Scott Devours Scored a Gig With the Who With Four Hours to Learn 'Quadrophenia'

Scott Devours with Roger Daltrey February 10 at the Joint in Las Vegas. Photo by Brett Bixby.

OC Weekly

By Arrissia Owen 

February 19, 2013 

Scott Devours' friends nearly dashed his dreams. Long Beach's 46-year-old drummer extraordinaire got a call February 5 from The Who—yes, that Who!—to ask if he could fill in THAT night for their drummer who pulled a tendon, Ringo Starr's son Zak Starkey. Devours' buddies surrounding him at home advised him in no uncertain terms to politely decline.

They're not saboteurs. On the contrary, Devours' friends, fellow musicians, were terrified for him and adamantly said he should refuse because The Who--obviously one of the most famous rock bands evah--was going to hit the stage at San Diego's Valley View Casino Center in front of more than 10,000 people in merely seven hours. Impossible.

Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and crew were to play the full version of the band's challenging 17-song rock opera Quadrophenia. And Devours, until that day, had only played one song from Quadrophenia live evah. He said yes.

"For all practical purposes, it could have been the worse moment of my career," Devours admitted days after the career-changing performance. "Instead it was the greatest thrill ever."

The next morning, nearly every concert review led with the substitute's miraculous feat. In hindsight, Devours' friends did him a huge favor. "It made me fight them," he said, instead of caving to self-doubt.

Townshend introduced Devours to the crowd fittingly on stage, rehashing the famous Cow Palace night in 1973 when infinitely inebriated drummer Keith Moon famously passed out on his kit. They plucked a young drummer from the audience and obscurity to save the show.

Photo by Erik Kabik

"His name was Scott," Townshend told the audience. "As in the man who came in like the fuckin' cavalry and saved us [tonight]!" The crowd went wild.

Reliving the phone call, Devours rehashed what made him agree to the show despite his well-wishers' urging. "What became crystal clear at that second was that they were right," said Devours, who grew up idolizing Moon's bombastic chops. He also knew he couldn't refuse. "That is the call I've wanted my whole life."

It's a drummer's evolution that started early, in a small Maryland town called Middletown. To hear his mother Joyce tell it, Devours started pounding skins early, his chest actually, to the family stereo while still in diapers. He obliterated Snoopy and Ringo Starr drum kits soon after.

In fifth grade, Devours' school's music teacher asked if anyone played an instrument. He bored classmates playing an obscure, complex song. At the teacher's gentle urging, Devours played by ear a Bee Gees' song overheard in his mom's car that morning.

"It was a silly disco song," Devours said laughing. "But all the girls in the class stood up and screamed. I remember thinking, 'I know what I'm going to do with my life.'"

At 25, with a 9-to-5 and a mortgage, he left the keys and deed on his kitchen table and drove to LA to live in squalor as a struggling musician. February 5 was not Devours' first ballsy move.

Nearly 30 studio recordings later with bands like Speaker, Oleander, Ima Robot, Rocco Deluca and more, in 2011 Devours got the call that paved the way to Whoville. Devours landed the drummer gig on Roger Daltrey's solo tour, which included hammering out material like "Tommy." His bragging rights already included sharing the stage at benefits with the likes of Robert Plant and Dave Grohl and touring with Eric Clapton.

Someone pinch Scott Devours. His first Who show.

Still, Devours didn't know Quadrophenia, not like he needed to play it in front of dedicated Who fans. As his friend and fellow drummer Chris Caldwell sped toward San Diego, Devours rode shotgun scribbling notes while listening to a recent recording of Starkey drumming Quadrophenia. The disheveled Devours wondered whether he was completely nuts or the biggest egomaniac alive.

That night, Devours' standing ovation shattered the place making his clan proud. There was one family member Devours especially wanted to impress, but it was three weeks too late. His father, Hurshel, passed away January 11 from lung cancer.

"Taking that bow on stage that night compared to the depression and how low things felt earlier that morning," Devours said, fighting through tears in reflection, "and then all the frantic pace, all the cramming of the material, all the self doubt and all the nervousness--then I am at the highest point of my life. How did that tidal wave come in and sweep me clean?" He's still riding high.

As of press time, Devours told the Weekly that Starkey has made a recovery and resumed his post with the band to finish out the last date on the tour on Feb. 28. But even though the drummer's speedy recovery stamped Devours' ticket home, that brief ride will likely live on as stuff of legend in his household. "I'm still flying," he said. "I can without a doubt say that nothing even comes close to being the highlight of my life like that experience."

For video of Scott performing, click here:

For the original story in OC Weekly, click here:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/2013/02/the_who_drummer_scott_devours.php?page=2